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The US nuclear regulator has issued an operating licence for Uranium One's Moore Ranch in-situ leach (ISL) uranium mine in Wyoming.ÌýIt is the first new uranium mine licence issued in the USA since 1998.Ìý

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The Moore Ranch facility covers some 2873 hectares in the Powder River Basin region of northern Wyoming. Uranium One said that it expects the project to become a satellite ISL operation, with loaded resins to be transported to its fully permitted Willow Creek plant for further processing into dried U₃O₈.

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Drilling activities at Moore Ranch (Image: Uranium One)

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Production of uranium bearing resins from Moore Ranch is expected to begin in 2012, serving as an additional source of feed to the Willow Creek central plant.

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Uranium One submitted its application for a licence for the Moore Ranch mine in October 2002. It was the first application for a uranium recovery licence accepted by the NRC in two decades. In a statement the company said: "This is a particularly notable accomplishment since this is the first new licence issued by the NRC in almost 13 years for the development of a new US uranium production facility."

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The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) review of the application included an environmental review, as well as a safety evaluation. The review concluded that the proposed facility can operate safely, including management of radiological and chemical hazards, groundwater protection, and eventual clean up and decommissioning. The NRC issued a draft materials licence in June 2010 to build and operate an in-situ uranium recovery facility at the Moore Ranch project.

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The Moore Ranch uranium project was extensively explored from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. It contains measured mineral resources totalling approximately 5.9 million pounds of U₃O₈ contained in 2.95 million tons of ore at an average grade of 0.10% and inferred resources of 89,000 pounds of U₃O₈ contained in 43,600 tons, at an average grade of 0.102%, certified by Canadian National Instrument 43-101, according to 2006 figures reported by ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Metals.

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Uranium One said that it is also working toward developing additional projects in the Powder River Basin - including Ludeman, Allemand-Ross and Barge - which are also expected to be developed as satellite operations with final processing through the Willow Creek central plant.

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Researched and written

by ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Nuclear News

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